Wednesday, August 21, 2013

﻿RAWHIDE KID WEDNESDAY 48

﻿If you’re new to the bloggy thing...

The Rawhide Kid - the one created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, thencontinued by Larry Lieber - is my favorite western character. Mostevery Wednesday, I dive into my ever-growing collection of RawhideKid to write about Johnny Clay and his adventures. So, saddle up,pardner, we got some hard riding to do if we want to catch up withthe greatest gun-slinging hero of them all!

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The Rawhide Kid #63 [April 1968] seems like an “off” issue to me,despite the return of Larry Lieber. Maybe it’s because there wasso much other stuff going on at Marvel in early 1968, but this issuealmost seems thrown together to me.

Lieber’s cover for this “BIG ALL-ACTION ISSUE!” is an exciting one,with Rawhide leaping from his horse at a brutish bad guy trying toshoot him. A second owlhoot is firing away as well. Inker VinceColletta lavishes a great deal of attention on the cover’s horses.Though westerns aren’t something Colletta’s style was suited for,I like his work on this cover.

There are two Rawhide Kid adventures in this issue. “Shoot-Out atMesa City!” (8 pages) is written by Ron Whyte with Lieber/Collettaon the art. The tale reads like a condensed version of some olderRawhide stories. Our young hero is in a small town in a territorywhere he’s not a wanted man. His peaceful moment is interrupted bya thrown knife that pins his hat to a tree.

The town sheriff is none too happy to have a guy with Rawhide’s repin town. He makes the Kid feel downright unwelcome and pretty muchtells him to get out of town. The Kid doesn’t show the sheriff thenote that was on the knife blade:

Come to Hungry Horse Mesa tonight at midnight!

The Kid rides out to the mesa and finds outlaw Gila Johnson waitingfor him. Johnson wants the Kid to join his gang. The Kid refusesand only manages to escape by using Johnson as a shield. He ridesback to town to warn the sheriff...who still doesn’t want the Kid inhis town, not even to help him stop Johnson from robbing a big goldshipment coming in my stage.

The sheriff sets a trap for Johnson, but is outgunned until the Kidcharges to the rescue. Rawhide shoots Gila’s men and goes man-to-man with the slippy outlaw. Lieber puts a lot of energy into theseveral-panel battle and it’s the high point of an otherwise so-sostory.

The sheriff apologizes to Rawhide, but the Kid rides away. Heknows he will always be a fugitive until he clears his name. Hisdeparture from a territory where he’s not a fugitive makes no moresense this time than in did in all those other stories.

There’s a bit of the fantastic in “The Gun that Couldn't Lose!” (7pages), which is both written and penciled by Lieber. The RawhideKid is called out by Cheeno Yates, who claims to be the fastest gunin the West. The Kid outdraws Yates, but he can’t pull the triggerand is wounded in the arm. You see...

Cheeno’s partner has what appears to be “just an innocent-lookingpocket watch.” But, instead of a watch, the case conceals a small but powerful magnet. The magnet creates a force field attractingthe iron trigger of any gun and prevents Cheeno’s opponents fromsqueezing the trigger. The partner is not named in the story, butI’m guessing he’s some black-sheep ancestor of Tony Stark.

While his arm heals, Rawhide follows Cheeno from town to town andfigures out the scam. When the Kid is able to draw his gun again,he challenges Cheeno to a gunfight. But, this time, the Kid firstknocks out Cheeno’s partner and takes the magnet. One humiliatingdefeat later, Cheeno retires from gunfighting.

Lieber gets a lot of story into just seven pages. I’m not sure Ibuy the magnet bit, but, what the heck, I was just glad to see him writing and drawing Rawhide again.

This issue’s reprint is a Kid Colt story from Kid Colt Outlaw #105[July 1962]. “Dakota Dixon, the Badman” (7 pages) is an outlaw wholived with Colt and his father for a few years back when he was ateen. Colt’s dad has promised Dixon’s father he would look afterand protect Dakota. Colt feels honor-bound to do the same, even ifit means walking away from a fight. The story was written by StanLee and drawn by Jack Keller.

Dixon’s gang doesn’t believe Colt won’t stop them and figure theyhave to get the Kid out of the way first. Outgunned, surrounded,Colt figures he’s going down fighting. That would have been whathappened, but Dixon jumps between Colt and one of his back-shootinghenchmen. Colt asks the dying Dakota why he gave his life to savethe Kid. Dixon’s dying words:

Maybe–-maybe I wanted to prove yore father was right–-when he saidDakota ain’t–-as bad as he–-seems–-ohhh...

Kid Colt reflects:

Fate works in mighty strange ways! Because my dad tried to befriend a teen-ager years ago, my life was saved today! Well, I reckon Dadwas right, after all! I reckon maybe nobody is really all bad!

It’s rare for a reprint to be the best story in an issue of RawhideKid, but this moving tale is an impressive one. As for the art, Ireally like Keller’s work. Along with Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers and,of course, Larry Lieber, he was one of the reasons I liked Marvelwesterns so much.

The “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins” page was filled with announcementsof new Marvel titles. Captain America and the Incredible Hulk weregetting their own books. Two other heroes would appear in Iron Manand Sub-Mariner #1 (and only) before getting their own titles nextmonth. The new Not Brand Echh was said to be “the unexpected smashhit of the decade” and the Kree-born Captain Marvel was starring inMarvel Super-Heroes.

A new Marvel rank was announced. If a reader had previously beenawarded the ranks of RFO (Real Frantic One who bought three or more Marvel comics a month), QNS (Quite ‘Nuff Sayer who had a publishedletter in a Marvel comic), TTB (Titanic True Believer who had wona No-Prize) and KOF (Keeper of the Flame who had recruited a “newdisciple into the rollicking realm of Marveldom), that reader heldthe rank of PMM (Permanent Marvelite Maximus).

Because I didn’t have a No-Prize, it wasn’t until the 1990s that Iwas able to claim the rank of PMM. A sarcastic Marvel editor sentme one in a response to my query letter about what he was lookingfor in the titles he was editing. That editor is no longer workingin the comics industry or, near as I could determine from a quickonline search, any other creative field.

In “Stan’s Soapbox,” our fearless letter announced Marvel would nolonger refer to its competition as “Brand Echh.” In light of DC’smalodorous “New 52,” maybe Marvel should consider resurrecting the phrase. Just saying.

“The Mighty Marvel Checklist” was filled with cool comics this timeout. Not Brand Echh #7 has the origins of the Fantastical Four andStuporman. Fantastic Four #73 had Doc Doom, Spider-Man, Daredeviland Thor. Hercules was battling Typhon in Avengers #50 and CharlieXavier was allegedly dying in X-Men #42.

Thor was being claimed by Hela, Goddess of Death in his own book.Captain America was reliving his origin during a team-up with theBlack Panther. The Hulk was “vacationing” in Asgard. In StrangeTales #167, Steranko was knocking our socks off with his Nick Furystories. Back in World War II, the second issue of Captain Savagehad the Leatherneck Raiders going up against the Samurai Squad withBaron Strucker in the background. Good times.

There’s no “Ridin’ the Range with Rawhide” letters page this issue. There is a nearly full-page ad for Not Brand Echh #7 and StrangeTales #167 with great covers by Marie Severin and Steranko.

Also on this page - in teeny type - is the statement of ownership,management and circulation. The statement is dated October 1, 1967and list the total average paid circulation of The Rawhide Kid as205,221 copies. The single issue nearest to the filing date was238,200. I’m going to speculate that the larger number representsan issue published during summer when, traditionally, comics saleswere higher.

That’s it for this edition of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday,” my rannies.I’ll be back tomorrow with other stuff.

1 comment:

One proviso is certainly apt: as soon as publishers began relying on affidavit returns rather than actual returns of unsold or stripped copies from distributors, they became dependent upon the distributors to report that information in a correct and timely manner.

We know that often, that information was not reported in a timely manner. That is why I have implored readers to never, ever place any weight on the column known as "nearest issue to filing date," which began being reported in the mid-1960s. Since publishers didn't have all the information about returns, the number of returned copies is often lower than the average figure for the year — and the sales, thus, appear higher than the average for the year. I can't tell you how many comments and posts I've read over the years from people who looked at the "closest issue" data and wrongly concluded that a comic book was improving in sales.

It can happen, especially if some big event happened or some famous creator joined a title in the latter part of the year. But the truth usually is the "closest issue" data is simply incomplete, and often by a wide margin.